Poe’s Final Macabre Mystery Part XIII 

Welcome back to Myths & Mischief! This is your Lovable Lord of Lore, today’s mischievous myth is the thirteenth and final installment of the tale of the death of America’s master of the macabre, Edgar Allen Poe.

This is the 13th part of a short story that gives a possible explanation of famous author Edgar Allen Poe’s demise.  

---

Years later in 1875, Carl Wilson found out that the body of Edgar Allen Poe was being exhumed and attended the effort. He had secretly never given up on the investigation, but he hadn’t publically pursued it either. He kept a file in his safe at his home that included his notes and had instructed Dr. Moran to get rid of any records regarding Poe for the safety of both of them.

When Poe’s body was being relocated to a more prominent location in the graveyard, the apparatus used for the exhumation broke and Poe’s body was exposed. Wilson saw a mass rolling around in his skull. It seemed odd and out of place enough to raise questions. Wilson quietly ran through possible courses of action. He needed medical advice regarding this mass, which could be the ultimate cause of Poe’s death while still being discrete.

He decided to have another conversation with the retired Dr. Moran, thinking that they both had reasons to keep their conversations secretive.

He found Dr. Moran at his residence that evening.

“Dr. Moran, good to see you again.”

“Wilson?”

“Yes, Carl Wilson, I know I have not spoken to you in a couple of decades, but I have some medical questions for you regarding an old investigation.”

“I got rid of my notes like you told me to, and to be honest, I don’t remember much. That was what, 25 years ago?”

“This would be a new twist, where general information would be sufficient, and I need answers that can be kept quiet.”

“I will help the best I can.”

“I have two questions for you. First involves the decomposition of the brain, do you know how long that takes?”

“It is one of the first things to decompose, why do you ask?”

“I saw Poe’s body recently when he was dug up. There was something attached rolling around in his skull. It was smaller than a brain would be, but it appeared to be hard.”

“After this much time, it couldn’t have been a brain. It may have been a tumor.”

“That leads me to the second question, if he had a tumor, how would that affect his ability to process alcohol or sustain several beatings.”

“It is difficult to say, but the combination of a brain tumor, alcohol and several beatings can have deadly effect, more so if they all are happening at the same time.”

“Do you know what happened to him?”

“What I know for sure is that Mr. Poe suffered significantly in his life, and the end of his life was cut short, most likely from multiple sources. I can speculate that there were powerful people that did not want his death to be associated with their actions. It seemed odd at the time, but the hat he was wearing was never explained. The only connection I can make is that cooping was involved, but there are no definitive links to his death without being with him at the time and having a much better understanding of his inflictions.”

“Are you looking to make arrests, after all these years? Will I be in danger again?”

“I don’t see the good in it, there are multiple people that share some blame. I only have a guess as to what happened, I believe it is Mr. Poe’s final mystery, and it will never be solved, nevermore.” concluded Wilson.

---

That’s it for today’s installment, this is your Lord of the Lore signing off.   

If you liked this tale, make sure to subscribe for more so you don’t miss the next installment of mischievous myths!